Princess Patches

This information is inaccurate. Tickets purchased online are not valid on cruise ship days, and tickets purchased at the Visitor Center do not come with the guarantee of a seat. This is the current policy.

 

https://www.sbtrolley.com/santa-barbara-cruiseship-tour-days.php

 

Totally agree with this poster. Skip the trolley tour, they have made it into a hassle for cruise ship passengers. Take a taxi to the Mission and be sure to check out the clock tower view at the Courthouse!

Consider doing the trolley tour. It takes about an hour and a half if you don't get on and off. It costs about $20 and will be cheaper than a taxi. It stops at the Mission among many other sights. I highly recommend getting off at the Courthouse and taking the elevator to the top of the clock tower for a spectacular 360 degree view of Santa Barbara. The elevator ride is free. If you decide on the trolley, you can buy your tickets online and then get on at the Franciscan Inn stop, which is the closest pick up point to where the tender drops you off. Less walking for your husband. Cross Cabrillo Street where the tender drops you off and then go to your left to Bath Street (about a block). Walk up Bath Street about 1 1/2 blocks to the Franciscan Inn.

Certainly Americans will understand either term, but most commonly I hear the term disembarkation especially when on a ship. I hear the word debark most commonly when on on airplane as in "be sure to check the overhead compartment before you debark the plane".

The shows generally play about 8:00 and 10:00 so you will have to go to the late show if you have second seating traditional. The late show is never crowded and you can get a good seat even if you arrive 5 minutes before show time. The early show is always packed and you must arrive 30 minutes before show time to get a seat.

 

Sometimes they have three shows. In that case you would have to choose between the first and the third show times because you will be at dinner during the middle show. Either one of those times will be less crowded than the middle show time. Shows run 35-40 minutes.

No guarantee, but they usually go up right after Thanksgiving. I cruised during Thanksgiving two years ago and they started decorating on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

[quote name='chamima']Thanks.
The title doesn't sound like anything special so I might have missed it.
I won't now!!![/QUOTE]

I doubt you missed it. On both formal nights we had a Chocolate Journeys dessert. It was listed at the top of the dessert menu in bold type with a paragraph long description of the item, including identifying it as a Chocolate Journeys dessert. Almost impossible to miss unless you did not even look at the dessert menu.

Is that where you had the chocolate hazelnut bar?

 

On the Crown we were served the Chocolate Hazelnut Bar on formal night in the MDR.

Agree with above posters to arrive around 11:00 am and you will be onboard by about 12-12:30 pm for lunch. If you follow that schedule and all goes well you shouldn't have to spend more than an hour or so in the terminal.

Those cabins are great and you will enjoy the double sized balcony. You really have to be all the way aft to feel the thrusters and then it is only for about 15 minutes while the ship is docking. Not a big deal. You cabins are not all the way aft.

Aren't there official statistics somewhere about which ships get the virus and when? Does the Crown have an official bad record in this regard?

 

Yes, the CDC tracks outbreaks where 3% or more of the passengers come down with the virus. Their website shows that since the Crown started sailing in 2006 it has suffered essentially three outbreaks. The first in Jan-Feb 2012 on b2b cruises, then again in April 2014 and the current outbreak.

 

If you look at the other ships from all the cruise lines tracked since 2006 the Crown does not have the most outbreaks. There are some ships with as many as 7 outbreaks in the same time period. There are several Princess ships with more outbreaks than the Crown during the same time period. The idea that the Crown has the most outbreaks of any ship is a myth.

I wonder if you can address the issue of check in times that Princess sends out. I received an email stating that our boarding time on Regal, 11/30 is between 12:30AND 1:30. We will be driving and arriving at approximately 11 AM. We are Platinum.

 

Your printed boarding time is a suggestion. You can arrive earlier and board earlier if you wish. Like the above poster, we like to arrive at 11:00 am and are usually on board the ship by 12:00-12:30 pm.

I think the OP is stating that the Princess cruise costs $772 per person more than the Carnival Cruise and is wondering if it is worth the extra cost.

 

Princess is a higher quality cruise and is worth some more than Carnival, but probably not $1544 more for a two week cruise. However, the price on the January 2016 Ruby cruise at $2500 per person in a balcony is not a discounted price and you can get a much better price than that on a Princess ship to Hawaii (we got $1500 per person in a balcony a couple of years ago on a last minute deal). Unless you absolutely have to book now, I would keep watching that cruise for deals. It will most likely go on a very good sale and be much closer to the Carnival price. January 2016 is a long way off.

Not all of the tables for two are inches apart banquette style. There are some that are completely separate and healthy distance from the other tables. It has been my observation (could be wrong), that they are very few, if any of these truly separate tables for two in the traditional dining rooms. Most of them are in the anytime dining rooms.

:) I am however, speaking to the full charge applied along with gratuities, because it is only her and I in the room.

 

I was not aware there were any cruise lines that discounted the first or second fare based on the fact that one of the two passengers was a child. Are there any? Even cruise lines like NCL that cater to children do not offer that. They offer free or heavily discounted fares for children only if they are sailing as the third/fourth in the cabin along with two full fare passengers.

 

I am not sure you will find a cruise line that gives you a fare discount for your child if she is traveling as the first or second passenger in the cabin with you.

I'm paying full fare for my two kids on the Regal this December. Do you want to see the invoice?

 

Now come on......a 1year old will be affixed to the mother the whole cruise....the cruise line won't do much if anything for the child. The baby will not take any resources from the ship......they should be on there for free in my opinion.

 

The only time you pay "full fare" for the third and fourth in a cabin on a Princess ship is when the fare for the first two passengers in the cabin is so cheap that you are essentially paying the 3rd and 4th fare rate for everyone in the cabin.

 

What you mean by "full fare" in this context is that your are paying the SAME rate for everyone in the cabin and everyone is getting the same greatly reduced rate (about 1/2 the normal rate). As other posters have stated, you never pay full fare in the true sense of that concept for the 3rd and 4th passengers.

 

If you want your child to sail free, check out NCL they have a lot of 3rd/4th sail free deals.

No visas, but be sure your passport is valid for 6 months after your return to US because many countries require that. So if you are sailing next September, your passport should not expire prior to March 2016.

 

Delta comfort air gives you 4" more legroom and the seats recline more. You also get to board first and sit at the front of economy class. You get free alcohol and food on long haul flights (international and coast to coast). Since you are at the front of the plane, you will also get to debark first.

Also just off the Star, no dining room lunch offered on embarkation. Also 2 weeks prior on the Star,dining room was for Bon-Voyage only. Hope this isn't fleet-wide.

 

I have seen this posted about the embarkation day lunch several times now. It puzzles me because I have been on over 20 cruises and have never failed to have lunch in the dining room on embarkation day.

 

I wonder if passengers possibly misunderstood that they could not have lunch. I noticed when I had lunch in the dining room on embarkation day on the Crown last month that the BVE group was seated near the windows on the starboard side and the remaining passengers were seated near the windows on the port side of the dining room. No one was being seated in the entire middle section of the dining room.

 

The BVE group entered the dining room through the doors on the starboard side and the other passengers entered through the doors on the port side. No one was crossing across the middle of the dining room. I am wondering if passengers who tried to enter through the starboard side doors were told it was the BVE group only. They then assumed lunch was not being served for them and left without going around to the port side doors or being told to go around to the port side doors. They were very few passengers on the port side eating lunch (6-8 tables?).

This is our first time on Princess and our first time on a Christmas day cruise. Will these activities be happening on the ship even if the ship is in port on Christmas day. Trying to decide if I want to take an excursion in Belize or stay on the ship.

Thanks

 

I was on the Sapphire Princess Christmas cruise last year and we were in port on Christmas Day (Puerto Vallarta). There were many activities on Christmas Day despite being in port including: Christmas Mass, Christmas Carol Concert in the Atrium, Santa Clause giving out Christmas gifts in the atrium, Christmas Family Fun Fair in the atrium, Christmas Show in the Princess Theater, Christmas karaoke, snow drop in the atrium, Christmas deck party by the pool, and several Christmas movies playing at MUTS and in the theater (How the Grinch Stole Christmas, It's a Wonderful Life, Fred Claus, and Four Christmases).

 

With the exception of Christmas Mass and the first movie at MUTS in the morning, the rest of the activities started at 2:00 pm or later. So you could go ashore in the morning and get back on the ship by lunch or early afternoon and still participate in most of the activities. Have fun.

I will be boarding the Crown in a few weeks, can you tell me what dining room serves embarkation lunch?:)

 

Thanks so much!

 

Janie

 

DaVinci midship.

There are lots of holiday festivities. It is great. They are carolers in Victorian costume, multiple snow drops in the atrium, Christmas trees and decorations throughout the ship including on your mailbox, stockings on your bed, Santa gives out gifts to the children (water bottles last year), Christmas themed movies, a Christmas show the the Princess Theater on Christmas Day, Christmas themed karaoke, church service on Christmas Eve and Day, Christmas Carol Concert in the Atrium on Christmas Day, special holiday foods at meals, Christmas cookie making demo, gingerbread house making, turkey carving demo, and the list goes on.

Lunch is still served in the dining room on embarkation day from 12:00-1:30 pm. It is not always listed in the Patter. On the Crown in October it was not listed but was served. After we did not see it listed in the Patter, we physically went to the midship dining room to check to see if it was being served.

Your boarding pass time is a suggestion. You can get there earlier if you wish. The check-in line usually opens about 11:00 and boarding usually starts around noon. Elite/Platinums/Suites board first.

The chocolate desserts served on formal nights in the MDR and the chocolate truffle pops served at the Captain's events are complimentary. They also serve the chocolate desserts in the specialty restaurants but there is a cover charge there. There is also a charge for the chocolate spa treatments and the chocolate drinks. I would guess that if you buy the all inclusive bar package it also includes the chocolate drinks.

You might want to post this under the Britain or Europe ports of call message boards for a better response. I know that they rent electric golf carts by the hour for the mobility challenged at Versailles. You might look into that. The grounds are huge and it is a long walk to everything.

Welcome to Cruise Critic. As an ice cream lover, you have chosen the right cruise line for your around the world adventure. I would love to do that cruise some day.

 

Go to the roll call section to find other passengers booked for your sailing. Click on "find your roll call" on the top of this page.